Cabrini University is a school that is devoted to bettering its community and strives to create a positive atmosphere on its campus. That is why every year, the Cabrini community dedicates a week during the spring semester to celebrate Cabrini’s diversity as well as the experiences and identities of individuals on Cabrini’s campus.
This week is called Unity Week. It occurs the week following Easter break, April 3 through April 8.
Unity Week is planned and run by student leaders and groups on campus in collaboration with faculty and staff. The events that are held help guide dialogue and spread awareness about different topics that are most relevant to Cabrini’s community and all communities around the United States.
In the past, the week was spearheaded by the diversity office and would bring in many different speakers, musicians and others that helped Cabrini celebrate diversity.
This year, senior Treci Butler and junior Ayonnah McIlwain are taking charge of the week and are hoping to have a week where everyone comes together as a united community.
“The country is very divided right now,” Butler said. “We just need to come together.”
The goal is to bring as many student organizations together in a display of unity by having different organizations plan events that bring the Cabrini community together.
Butler is planning to have all participants step outside their comfort zones and expand on what they do on campus as well as meet new people and become a closer, more united campus.
The organizations participating in this year are the Live Poets’ Society, the Showmakers, the Campus Activities and Programming Board (CAP), the Student Engagement and Leadership Office (SEaL), the Body Image Coalition, the Black Student Union (BSU), the Student Government Association (SGA) and the Rotaract Club.
These clubs have spent the past few months diligently planning events that will help bring the campus together.
The week kicks off on April 3 with a unity march at 3:30 p.m. at Grace Hall. Then on April 4, the Live Poet Society and the Showmakers will read “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” by Martin Luther King, Jr. to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his assassination at 5:30 p.m. in the Holy Spirit Library.
On the same day, CAP Board and SEaL will host the Jelly Bean Social in Grace Hall at 7 p.m.
The social is about relieving stress and will be a laid-back event where people can enjoy themselves while painting and creating other crafts. There will be a jar filled with jelly beans, and students can guess how many jelly beans are in the jar.
“The jelly beans are all different on the outside but the same on the inside,” Ahtziri Lopez, a CAP Board director, said. “Everyone’s different, but we’re all the same in the Cabrini community.”
Body Image Coalition is hosting at Life Size event that promotes self-love and body positivity, which will be on April 5 at 4:15 p.m. in Grace Hall.
“[The] Life Size event is something we as a club have been wanting to do for so long now,” Paige Wagner, president of the Body Image Coalition, said. “And we are so happy that we are getting the opportunity to have this event during Unity Week!”
On the same day, Black Student Union will be hosting the Stomp of the Year in the Dixon Center. The Stomp of the Year will be $3 with a Cabrini ID and $5 for visitors.
On April 6, there will be a Real Talk, hosted by the Unity Week committee. It is currently undecided where the talk will take place.
Also on April 6, the Student Government Association and CAP Board will be hosting a film viewing in Widener Lecture Hall at 9 p.m.
On April 7, the Rotaract Club will be having a day of service from 2-4 p.m. in the Grace Hall multipurpose room.
To end the week, there will be an Interfaith-PACC event called A Culture Reflection on April 8 in Founder’s Hall, room 352, at 2 p.m.
Nia Alvavez-Mapp described the event as a “cultural feflection to shed light on Dr. King’s time as an interfaith leader.”
